The Interurban Canopy

North King County news for Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, and sometimes Kenmore, Bothell and Woodinville

I’m Oliver J. Moffat, an amateur journalist and publisher of The Interurban Canopy. You can find my reporting on The Interurban Canopy, Shoreline Area News, The Urbanist, and the LFP Town Crier.

I believe good local news coverage makes democracy stronger. I hope my reporting inspires a wider diversity of people across our community to become more informed and engaged with our local governments.

I strive to follow the Society for Professional Journalists’ code of ethics and I work to produce fair and factual local news.

I am on The Urbanist election endorsement committee and I’m a Precinct Committee Officer (PCO) with the 32nd LD Democrats.

My reporting is shaped by my personal values and experiences. I believe we have a moral obligation to house the homeless, take meaningful action to combat climate-warming pollution, and ensure we leave more for future generations than we take. As a transit rider, pedestrian, and cyclist, I want our roads to be safe and enjoyable places for everyone, not just drivers. As a father of young adults, I want housing to be abundant and affordable for all. And as someone who loves to connect with neighbors over a cup of coffee, I support policies that help local businesses thrive.

Unless otherwise noted, my content on The Interurban Canopy is free to share under the Creative Commons (CC BY) license.

I sometimes use AI tools to assist with research and editing but not for content generation. My experiments with AI systems has found them to be useless for content generation because their hallucination rates are too high, requiring me to carefully fact check and rewrite everything anyway. However, there are some specific uses I’m grateful for. I use an LLM-based tool to transcribe, search, analyze and summarize the thousands of pages of documents and hundreds of hours of meetings I use as sources for my reporting. And I’ve always been a sloppy writer and a horrible speller but now I use an LLM-based tool to proofread my writing.

Since 2006, I’ve called North City in Shoreline home.

I’m also a volunteer urban forest restoration steward at Hamlin Park with the Green Shoreline Partnership. Please come out and help me dig up some noxious weeds while making new friends.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.

I welcome tips, feedback, or corrections—feel free to email me directly. You can find me on all the socials including Bluesky: olivermoffat.bsky.social.